OUR WILL REPRESENTS our choice, but
our choice is made up largely of our impressions
and our judgmentor mis-judgmentof things surrounding us.
As a
child will reach for a finely polished razor
or for a light and be cut or burned, so our
wills sometimes grasp for things that are
not good for us.
From the time that we
first heard the Lord's voice, therefore, the
education of our wills has progressed; for
all are defective in their choice, in their views of matters,
and in their manner of thinking.

Our soundness of mind increases with our knowledge
of the Divine Plan and of the character of our Lord.
When we think of His perfection as the Logos and as
the Man Christ Jesus, we are enabled to realize somewhat
our own imperfection, and we thenceforth seek to eliminate
those things which belong to our imperfect judgment.
We recall that He was "holy, harmless, undefiled and
separate from sinners"that He was perfect; and we
realize, that having a consecrated mind, He entered the
"narrow way" with a right will and a balanced mind,
which would be accentuated by His experiences in life.
With His perfect example before us, we seek daily to
train our wills in harmony with the Divine will.

The will is the result of a certain combination ofmental qualities, or faculties.
We may, therefore, change
our wills in various ways by having divers combinations of the mental qualities; for instance, one quality of the
mind is called acquisitivenessa desire to get, to control.
Another quality of the mind has respect to justice, another
to music, another to art, and so on.

If the quality of justice be small or if it be dormant,
a person of large acquisitiveness might be led to steal. He would have no quality of justice to tell him that this
act is wrong.
Some one might be tempted to take money,
or one might be willing to do something dishonorable
to gratify love for music or what not.
On the contrary,
if one has a large organ of justice, it would control him.
If this faculty were thoroughly awakened and brought
into exercise, he would say, "No, it is wrong to steal.
In this matter there are principles to be regarded."
Thus
his desire is not gratified at the expense of principle.

One's will is made up of the organs which control his
conduct.
If the selfish propensities rule, he will be selfish.
In some people the organ of conscientiousness seems to
be dormant.
Along some lines these people act just as an
animal wouldwithout thought as to either their own
motives or the effect that their actions will have upon
others.
If such people should at any time give their
hearts to the Lord in consecration, their attention is sure
to be called, sooner or later, to their manner of living.
If they consult the Word of God for instruction, the
Scriptures tell them that God is not pleased with their
conduct.
As a result of this information, they begin to
learn to scrutinize their thoughts and words and doings,
and in due time to change their ways.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS GIVES STRENGTH OF CHARACTER

A person who has large veneration, large spirituality
and large conscientiousness has great advantage over one
who has small veneration, or small spirituality or small
conscientiousness, for as different matters come up, these
three faculties naturally agree and say, "This is right"
(or wrong, as the case may be).
When the thing seems
right, judgment would say, "This is a proper thing."
This kind of people can be martyrs for anything that
they believe is right, for they are strong in three qualities
of the mind which give them a force of character for
righteousness.

We should strive to have strong will, strong character,
and should put away everything that would be likely to
weaken our character.
One who builds strong character
reasons out what he thinks is God's willwhat he thinks
is the right thing to do.
Then he determines to do that
thing and resolves to let nothing interfere with the accomplishment
of his purpose.
Whoever has a good,
strong will has something to help him over every trial
and difficulty in life.